Florida Phoenix News

03/01/2025

President Joe Biden announced early Friday he will block the sale of U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, in one of the last acts of his presidency. Biden had said that U.S. Steel should remain a domestically owned and operated company, so the order was not a surprise. The White House in...

03/01/2025

Experts say they’d never heard of Tortoise Conservancy before it became a social media presence.

What would you say are some hallmarks of longtime Floridians? As a Florida native, I’d say a love of our plentiful outdoor wonders, an appreciation for the frequent absurdity of our news headlines, and a deep skepticism about everything that looks too good to be true. We’re skeptical because so ...

03/01/2025

“And if it is actually going to happen, people should demand a very specific accounting of how there is contrition and repentance on part of each of the people being pardoned."

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday urged Americans to demand President-elect Donald Trump justify each Jan. 6 defendant pardon if he issues them on his “first day” in office, as promised. The Maryland congressman, who sat on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6t...

02/01/2025

“These judges will be independent, they’ll be fair, and they’ll be impartial,” Biden said. “I never thought I’d be saying this, they’ll uphold the Constitution.”

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday said the work his administration did in nominating judges confirmed to the federal bench will help protect the nation’s democratic institutions in the years ahead. “These judges will be independent, they’ll be fair, and they’ll be impartial,” ...

02/01/2025

‘He was the most active and accomplished lieutenant governor in modern Florida history.’

Former Gov. Buddy MacKay, a long-time Florida politician who became governor for nearly a month following the abrupt death of Gov. Lawton Chiles in late 1998, died in his sleep on Tuesday afternoon surrounded by his three sons and wife, Anne. A spokesman for the family confirmed his passing at 91. N...

02/01/2025

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement agencies in the nation’s capital were closely monitoring security Thursday following a terrorist attack in New Orleans and a vehicle explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The violent incidents took place just ahead of several high-profile even...

02/01/2025

While Florida Democratic Party (FDP) Chair Nikki Fried has already announced that she is running for a full-four year term following another bad election cycle for the state party, there is now competition for the role of party first vice chair in an election slated for later this month. Jayden D’...

02/01/2025

Heading into the third year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, states will continue to introduce and consider legislation to expand or restrict access to reproductive health care and abortion as legislative sessions begin. In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House ...

01/01/2025

Tech tools aimed at making the roads safer and more efficient amass large amounts of data, and some data privacy experts worry about how those data could be handled.

After nearly a week of searching for a suspect in the hit-and-run death of an 81-year-old St. Helena, California, woman this summer, police found and arrested a man with the help of license plate reading cameras that registered him near the scene. The police department used information from Flock’...

31/12/2024

“Florida officials are waging a baseless campaign to dehumanize and degrade incarcerated people like our client."

A federal judge is refusing for now to block a new policy in Florida prisons that requires transgender women inmates to cut their hair to meet male grooming standards and prohibits them from wearing female undergarments. Florida announced the policy change in late September and suggested at the time...

31/12/2024

WASHINGTON — Funeral services of former President Jimmy Carter will span from Jan. 4 to Jan. 9, the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region said Monday. Carter, who died Sunday at 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, lived the longest of any U.S. president in history. Following a service in Ge...

31/12/2024

Floridians need to know these nine laws going into effect in the new year.

30/12/2024

Political committee behind Florida's abortion amendment disbands

The political committee that pushed the proposed state constitutional amendment to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution is disbanding. Floridians Protecting Freedom submitted a letter to the state Division of Elections announcing it was disbanding effective Dec. 31 and that it wo...

30/12/2024

Florida political leaders remembered former President Jimmy Carter for his faith, servant-centered lifestyle, and charitable work following the centenarian’s death Sunday.

Florida political leaders remembered former President Jimmy Carter for his faith, servant-centered lifestyle, and charitable work following the centenarian’s death Sunday. The president from Plains, Georgia, died less than three months after turning 100 and nearly 44 years after leaving the White ...

30/12/2024

A look at the people and the organizations that impacted reproductive health law and abortion access this year. floridaphoenix.com?p=227885

Galvanized by a pivotal election almost two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections, patients, doctors, and activists in 2024 fought for renewed and expanded reproductive rights, while others pushed for more restrictions. These are some of the people and organizati...

30/12/2024

The news of Jimmy Carter’s passing takes me back to 1976, a year that marked my own passage to adulthood. As the bicentennial year dawned, I took first notice of Carter upon his victory in the Iowa Caucuses. I followed his campaign through my high school graduation and into the summer, when I shut...

30/12/2024

WASHINGTON — As U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson vies to keep his gavel, President-elect Donald Trump on Monday gave the Louisiana Republican a major boost with his “Complete & Total Endorsement.” Trump’s coveted backing — just days ahead of Friday’s House vote to elect a speaker — came...

30/12/2024

“What the BOG is trying to do is give another reason to remove this program by saying, ‘Economically it doesn’t make sense.'"

The state Board of Governors plans to commission a study of the economic return from Women- and Gender-Studies programs at Florida’s public universities. One lawmaker warned the effort is “trying to stage” an argument to get rid of the programs. The governors, who oversee the State University ...