GERALDINE THOMPSON

When voters head off to the polls, there are a lot of primary races that could come down to the final votes.

Geraldine Thompson won another term in the Florida Senate Tuesday, defeating former State Sen. Randolph Bracy III in a universal primary for Florida Senate District 15 Tuesday night.

There was a big turnout at the Pine Hills Greater Orlando Hob Nob Thursday night.

A Florida task force gave final approval to recommend St. Augustine as the top site for a new museum of Black history, but this might not be the end for Eatonville as the potential site.

June 19, 1865 marked the day Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas told the last enslaved African Americans they were free.

With two months to go before the deadline to qualify to run for office, a Florida Senate seat in Orange County is shaping up to be a battle between two heavyweights in the Black community.

According to Heart of Florida United Way, the short film “shares the personal stories of Central Floridians who have faced racism, segregation, and bias throughout their lives.”

The State Board of Education on Wednesday approved new academic standards for instruction about African American history, after numerous teachers from across Florida objected to the changes and asked the board to put the proposal on hold.

Weather caused several events to be canceled over the weekend, but one went on as lawmakers sought to get results and remember and honor a teen who lost his life too soon.

In Central Florida, even with scattered showers, hundreds of people came out to celebrate freedom in Ocoee.

The Florida House unanimously passed a bill Wednesday named after the teen who fell to his death from the Orlando FreeFall attraction over a year ago.

The Florida Senate on Wednesday approved a sweeping elections bill aimed at continuing Republican leaders’ efforts to crack down on voter-registration groups and ensuring Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t have to resign from office to run for president.

State senators in Tallahassee are expected to take up a bill named after a teen who fell to his death from the Orlando FreeFall attraction last year.

An event Friday morning was held to remember Tyre Sampson, the teenager who died last year when he fell off an attraction at Orlando’s ICON Park.

The mother of a 14-year-old boy who fell to his death from the Orlando FreeFall thrill ride last year visited the site where her son was killed for the first time Wednesday.

A Florida Senate committee approved a bill Monday afternoon to make changes to ride safety rules after the death of a tourist at an Orlando attraction.

The Public Safety Bill passed the Senate Com on Fiscal Policy, but it came with a lot of public comment from people weighing in on both sides of the issue.

A town hall is seeking input from the Pine Hills community ahead of the legislative session and after a string of deadly shootings last week that killed a 38-year-old woman, a 9-year-old girl and a Spectrum News 13 reporter.

A Florida lawmaker recently filed a bill in the Senate to make amusement rides safer in the state nearly a year after 14-year-old Tyre Sampson fell to his death from the Orlando FreeFall.

In solemn rage, NAACP officials, state senators and others involved in civil rights activism gathered for a news conference Saturday morning at a resort in Orange County to discuss Florida’s recent rejection of an Advanced Placement pilot course on African American Studies.

Three high school students are set to lead a lawsuit against the state of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis over the education department’s rejection of an AP African American studies course.

State Rep. Geraldine Thompson won the universal primary for Florida Senate District 15.

Attorney Ben Crump and the family of a 14-year-old boy who died after falling from an Orlando thrill ride in March held a news conference to mark what would have been the teen’s 15th birthday.

Two Democratic state lawmakers are running for Florida Senate against each other, and because no one else is running, this primary is open to all voters.

State leaders will discuss a push to improve safety on thrill rides in Florida.

Florida officials said there is no timeline for reopening the Orlando drop tower at ICON Park in Orlando after a 14-year-old boy fell to his death from the thrill ride earlier this year.

The operator of the Orlando FreeFall attraction, where a 14-year-old boy fell to his death in March, said it hopes to reopen one of its other rides at ICON Park.

The father of a 14-year-old boy who fatally fell from an Orlando attraction is speaking alongside his lawyer, Ben Crump, on the release of his son’s autopsy report.

From marble to masterpiece, the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune statue exhibit the Lakeshore Center in Ocoee takes visitors on a journey of the educator’s life and how she’s being honored at the Capitol.

The family attorney for the mother of the teen killed after falling from an Orlando thrill ride said legal action is likely on the way.

The cause of a 14-year-old’s fatal fall from an Orlando drop tower attraction last week has not yet been determined as an investigation continues, according to the state agency leading the investigation.

Central Florida lawmakers are responding to News 6’s investigations into Orlando FreeFall.

Rep. Geraldine Thompson introduce HB 1133 this past Monday in hopes to further heal Groveland community.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Hundreds of seniors received their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination drive at an Orlando church. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church for the vaccination drive. “In order to achieve community-level immunity during this pandemic we have to make sure every zip code, every community has access to the vaccine,” Thompson said. The lawmakers said 500 people ages 65 and older signed up to get the shots. Data shows black Americans across the United States lag behind white Americans in getting the shots.

ORLANDO, Fla. – There has been a rise in opioid use and overdoses during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the founder of the Opioid Project, Andrae Bailey, and the issue has caught the attention of Florida Rep. Geraldine Thompson. Thompson hosted a virtual forum Tuesday morning to discuss the opioid epidemic with doctors and organizations a part of the conversation. “The COVID-19 pandemic has absolutely, definitively, no question about it, exacerbated the opioid crisis,” said Dr. Aaron Wohl, an emergency medicine physician with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Orlando. He said during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the largest increase in overdose deaths of any demographic was in the African American community. The conversation also offered up resources like Aspire Health Partners, who offers services to those with opioid addiction.

The legislators who tested positive for COVID-19 include Republican state Sen. Tom Wright of New Smyrna Beach and Ray Rodrigues of Estero. Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta said Wright took three separate tests --- and tested positive twice --- at a state-supported testing site that was set up outside the Capitol for lawmakers, guests, legislative staff and reporters. The Florida House of Representatives on Tuesday released a list of seven members who were excused from the one-day session because they either tested positive or were exposed to someone who had tested positive. While Salzman tested negative for the virus, her son tested positive. The Florida House and the Florida Senate have different COVID-19 infection-prevention policies in place.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is self-quarantining after being exposed to someone who recently tested positive for the coronavirus. Dyer was unable to attend Monday’s COVID-19 news briefing along with other Orange County leaders, including Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, because he is in self-quarantine. [TRENDING: Eta drenches Florida | 2 killed in Orange County crash | Biden names COVID-19 task force]The Orange County mayor said with Dyer in quarantine, it is an important reminder that the virus “is still alive and well here within this community." “I am feeling well at the moment and continue to exhibit no symptoms,” Dyer said. Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz also announced over the weekend he tested positive for COVID-19.

Ron DeSantis must pick a new Supreme Court justice because the judge he picked to fill a high court vacancy is constitutionally ineligible to serve, the court said in an order issued Friday. The Florida Supreme Court ordered DeSantis to appoint another judge by Monday, nullifying the appointment of Judge Renatha Francis. Francis would have been the first Caribbean-American justice to serve on the court. But the state constitution requires that a justice be a member of the Florida Bar for at least 10 years, and Francis was four months shy when DeSantis appointed her in May. The Supreme Court said that DeSantis was required to name a new justice within 60 days of the resignation of former Justice Robert Luck.

Ron DeSantis sternly criticized a Black Democratic lawmaker for challenging his pick of a Jamaican-American woman for the Supreme Court, saying Wednesday that if the representative wins her case, there will be no Black justices on the high court. The problem I have in this case, is this particular representative has been somebody thats been very vocal about wanting to have a Black justice on the Florida Supreme Court. If sworn in, Francis would become the first Caribbean-American to serve on Florida's Supreme Court. She has since refiled the petition asking justices to nullify Francis's appointment and have DeSantis pick a candidate from the original list. I want to take a moment to speak to Rep. Thompson, Black woman to Black woman, said Democratic Rep. Dotie Joseph.

OCOEE, Fla. State Sen. Randolph Bracy has drafted a bill to make Juneteenth a holiday in Florida. There seems to be an awareness from people in the state people and across the country, Bracy said. This year, Juneteenth has taken an even greater meaning because of the death of George Floyd and the calls for reform nationwide. On Friday, dozens showed up for a Rally for Justice at Bill Breeze Park in Ocoee. Bracy said he expects the bill to make Juneteenth to a holiday will likely be proposed in the 2021 Florida Legislative session.

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Florida lawmakers will renew their effort Tuesday to exonerate four men, known as the Groveland Four, who were wrongfully convicted of rape in 1949 in Lake County. Last year, the Florida Clemency Board posthumously pardoned Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin. “Pardons were a major step forward, and the Greenlee family is very grateful to the Cabinet members for their actions earlier this year,” said Carol Greenlee, the daughter of Charles Greenlee. Thompson announced Tuesday she would push for a joint House-Senate resolution, to exonerate the men and ensure that the state officially recognizes their innocence. “I was proud to stand with my cabinet colleagues to issue a pardon of the Groveland Four — but more action is needed.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The hands-free part of Florida's new texting and driving law goes into effect in a few days, which makes it illegal for drivers to hold a phone in school and construction zones. "We're talking about children, and in a school zone, they're getting off the school bus, they're darting in and out of traffic, they're really not paying attention. For people to be on their cellphones in a school zone increases the danger that there is going to be a fatality," Thompson said. Troopers said they will start giving warnings when the hands-free portion of the new law going into effect. Thompson said this is a great start to toughening Florida's texting and driving laws, but she still wants to drive change.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Recently released numbers show that hundreds of drivers across the Sunshine State have been ticketed or warned since Florida's new texting and driving law went into effect. Florida Highway Patrol troopers began issuing warnings on July 1, when texting while driving officially became illegal in Florida. Representatives with Florida Highway Patrol delivered their report Wednesday to members of the Florida House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee. [READ: Florida texting and driving statistics]"I think it's low, principally because it's new," Florida Representative Geraldine Thompson said. News 6 was a major force behind helping to get the new law banning texting and driving enacted with an initiative called Driving Change.