Fresh Take Florida

Fresh Take Florida is a news service producing top-caliber investigative and political content. Hard-hitting coverage generally focuses on Florida’s state government, including the Legislature, or other issues of statewide, regional or national interest. Stories are also distributed to Florida’s largest news organizations and more broadly under distribution agreements with The Associated Press, CNN, the Florida Public Radio Network, Gatehouse/Gannett, Tribune Media Company, McClatchy Co. and TEGNA. Click here to donate to support Fresh Take Florida’s reporters.

Redondo condo? GOP candidate wins state House race in South Florida amid questions over district residency

A well-funded Republican lawyer won a closer-than-expected election Tuesday to Florida’s House in a heavily leaning GOP district in South Florida, amid questions about the lawmaker-elect’s residency. Michael David Redondo, 38, of Miami, won with 52% of the vote in the low-turnout special election for House District 118, with all …

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Florida Supreme Court rules police, crime victims can’t keep their names secret under Marsy’s Law

In a major ruling with broad implications across Florida, the state’s Supreme Court said Thursday that a constitutional amendment voters passed in 2018 known as “Marsy’s Law” does not guarantee victims of crimes a categorical right to keep their names secret.  The justices said the amendment’s provisions to allow crime …

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Pro-Palestinian student group at University of Florida sues DeSantis to block shutdown orders

A pro-Palestinian student organization at the University of Florida sued state officials Thursday in federal court over what it described as an illegal order by the DeSantis administration to shut it down. In a related legal maneuver, the group separately asked a judge to immediately block the state’s efforts to …

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University of Florida bans from campus teaching assistant accused of vandalizing pro-Israel flag

The University of Florida banned a graduate student who is a teaching assistant from campus for three years after campus police accused him of vandalizing a pro-Israel sign by a predominantly Jewish fraternity. Simon Nicholas Lowry, 24, of Gainesville is facing two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief involving the incident …

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Citing legal fears, Florida universities push back on DeSantis order to shut down pro-Palestinian campus groups

In a highly unusual move, two of Florida’s biggest universities are pushing back against the DeSantis administration over its orders to shut down pro-Palestinian student organizations on campus, citing lawyers’ advice warning that administrators could face personal legal liability if they followed what might be an unconstitutional directive. Gov. Ron …

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Panic in the plaza: New videos show chaos of stampede at UF peace vigil, reveal police secretly investigating suicide-bomb threat

The first substantial videos to emerge from a panicked stampede at the University of Florida during a nighttime vigil for Israelis killed in the Hamas attacks show waves of terrified students sprinting out of their shoes, discarding phones and water bottles and colliding with startled and confused police officers who …

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