INSIDER
Valencia College returned $2.1 million to the Orange County supervisor of elections office Wednesday, a huge development in a budget battle that pitted Orange County government against the former supervisor of elections.
A House panel on Tuesday unanimously signed off on a proposal that would make further changes to condominium safety laws requiring inspections of older buildings and adequate reserves for repairs.
The Education Department plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of an effort to halve the organization’s staff -- a prelude to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency.
The House has passed legislation to avert a partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies through September.
During the two-year gap between closing Daily Bread and opening apartments that will be built for homeless people on Apollo Boulevard called Providence Place, the team will serve the community through mobile outreach like food trucks.
A day after the Florida House started moving forward with its version of the plan, the Senate on Friday released a wide-ranging bill that would add restrictions to the state’s ballot initiative process.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office has made its first arrest of homeless people after a state law banning sleeping or camping on public property went into full effect this January. The camp was on Raven Park property, at U.S. Highway 17-92 and Raven Avenue in the Longwood area.
The Associated Press has found that the Trump administration has stalled at least $60 million in funding intended largely for affordable housing developments nationwide.
Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new work, some fired federal workers are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: Relatives cheering their job loss.
Elon Musk is telling Republican lawmakers that he's not to blame for the firings of thousands of federal workers as he pushes to downsize the government.
Currently, people who are 25 years old or older cannot seek such damages in medical malpractice cases involving deaths of their parents. Also, parents cannot seek such damages in malpractice cases involving the deaths of their children who are 25 or older.
Wednesday afternoon, the city commission gave their approval to a plan put together by Orange County to alleviate flooding around the Piedmont chain of lakes. It’s a job that the city expects will take hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to complete.
Homeowners often feel the stress when their property tax bill arrives in the mail. Removing this burden could be appealing, though it comes with a new set of challenges.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new front on his war against vaccine mandates Wednesday, urging lawmakers to ban all mandates for mRNA-related vaccines.
With House Speaker Daniel Perez pointing to an “age of disruption,” Florida Republican legislative leaders opened the 2025 session on Tuesday by voicing support for digging into government spending.
The IRS is drafting plans to try to cut its workforce of roughly 90,000 people in half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts, according to two people familiar with the situation and not authorized to speak on the record.
Borrowers trying to get into a student debt repayment plan are in limbo right now after the Trump Administration and Department of Education took down the online application form for several popular student debt repayment plans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is encouraging Republican lawmakers to skip town halls that have been rife with protesters.
The annual Florida Legislative Session gets underway Tuesday, and our state representatives are looking to pass bills on everything from help for people with disabilities to preventing pool drownings to mental health care for teachers.
The Supreme Court has made it harder for environmental regulators to limit water pollution, ruling for San Francisco in a case about the discharge of raw sewage that sometimes occurs during heavy rains.
We asked Central Florida's 12 state senators (nine Republicans and three Democrats) what bills they hoped to pass this year and what issues they hoped the legislature would prioritize. Here are the responses we got.
Lawmakers in 2023 approved the requirements, citing a need for older students to get more sleep. The requirements are slated to take effect in 2026, but as the deadline has neared, districts have said they are struggling to comply.
Florida’s annual legislative session is set to begin, with elected officials from the House and Senate gathering in Tallahassee.
NOAA's weather data is freely available and critical for meteorologists to create accurate forecasts. But that's not all NOAA does. How its different divisions impact your life.
The Trump administration has approved a major nearly $3 billion arms sale to Israel, bypassing a normal congressional review to provide the country with more of the 2,000-pound bombs that it has used in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
European leaders have pledged to stand by Ukraine in the wake of the contentious Oval Office meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Bills filed for the annual Florida Legislative Session will look to create a funding source for a popular program to help Floridians pay to harden their homes against severe weather, while also offering tax relief to make those home projects more attractive.
State Sen. Geraldine Thompson planned to introduce several bills and budget requests during the annual Florida legislative session, which starts next week. With Thompson’s sudden death earlier this month, her colleagues in the Florida House and Senate are working to make sure those proposals live on.
Elevate Florida is a first-of-its-kind, statewide residential mitigation program led by the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM). It’s designed to not only protect homes from future disasters but also lower insurance premiums and reduce claims for future storms.
President Donald Trump's administration says federal agencies should begin planning to eliminate employee positions.
The state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. last week shed about 100,000 policies, with its number of customers dropping to the lowest total in nearly three years.
A portion of Interstate 75 in Florida will be expanded with more lanes through part of Central Florida, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
More than 1,000 parents, athletes, and coaches are petitioning Winter Springs commissioners to get the lights turned on at Central Winds Park's baseball and soccer fields.
Martha Are, CEO of Homeless Service Network of Central Florida, says they submitted HUD Award applications for federal money used to pay renewals for projects, services, and programs for the homeless community in November.
The Trump administration’s proposal to layoff half of federal workers at the nation’s housing agency is targeting employees who support disaster recovery, rental subsidies, discrimination investigations and first-time homebuyers, according to two documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The National Treasury Employees Union and former IRS employees say around 100 or 1/3 of employees at the Orlando offices received their termination letter on Wednesday or Thursday. Why workers say this could impact you.
On Tuesday night, Eustis commissioners will vote to adjust its current waste services contract with Waste Management. Instead, the trash and recyclables will go to a plant that turns waste into energy.
The Baker Act allows a person to be involuntarily detained and examined if they are believed to be having a mental health crisis and posing a danger to themselves or to others.
A news conference that was planned to follow talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy has been canceled.
This month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his latest budget recommendations, which could bring significant changes to some of the state’s biggest highways.
Rep. Anna Eskamani put in a budget request for $394,321 for the city of Orlando's Pulse Memorial. That's the same amount of money that was returned when the previous group dissolved last year.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named his former chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as the state’s attorney general.
City leaders in Longwood could decide Monday night whether to remove fluoride from the city’s water supply. The city commission meeting starts Monday evening at 6 p.m. at the commission chambers.
MCO is the busiest airport in Florida and 7th busiest in the country, yet its radar approach control building and much of the equipment inside is decades old. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, compared MCO’s TRACON to 1980’s Atari video games.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared to put the state’s property tax in his crosshairs this week after voicing his position on social media.
Faced with fast-rising homelessness and a shortage of shelter beds, Orlando officials are eyeing a mobile solution. They’re considering buying two former Greyhound buses, with bunkbeds replacing seats to house up to 20 people in each. The buses go for $175,000 each, with operations expected to cost about $1 million annually.
After Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton pounded Florida’s Gulf Coast last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is borrowing $2 billion to pay National Flood Insurance Program claims.
Dr. LaVon W. Bracy, a community leader and author, first met State Sen. Geraldine Thompson in 1969 when they became college roommates. Their friendship, which began when they were both 20 years old, lasted a lifetime. Bracy and her daughter, State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, talked to News 6 about Thompson and her legacy.
Department of Health and Human Services officials expected most of the agency’s roughly 5,200 probationary employees to be fired.
A Central Florida congressman wants to reopen an office that sought solutions for gun violence that President Donald Trump shuttered last month.
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday backed Rep. Debbie Mayfield in her bid to run in a special election for a Senate seat, ruling that state elections officials wrongly blocked her from appearing on the ballot.
Geraldine Thompson, who represented Orange County in the Florida House and Senate for almost 20 years, died Thursday, according to several lawmakers who worked with Thompson throughout her career.
A bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis Thursday will appropriate $298.8 million for immigration enforcement. A newly created State Board of Immigration Enforcement will get most of the money – approximately $250.7 million.
With the recent passage of some of the most stringent illegal immigration enforcement laws, many undocumented immigrants may choose to stop showing up for work due to fear of being detained, which some say could impact Florida’s economy.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
A Florida lawmaker has introduced legislation aimed at strengthening the state’s dangerous-dog laws following the death of an 8-year-old boy who was mauled in Volusia County last month.
After a bipartisan uproar last year about a proposal dubbed the “Great Outdoors Initiative,” the Florida Senate on Tuesday began moving forward with a bill that would prevent building such things as golf courses, pickleball courts and hotel-style lodges in state parks.
A Venezuelan group will host an informational session Saturday for immigrants concerned about recent changes in federal immigration policy.
The latest inflation report shows prices were up in January, pushing the annual inflation rate to 3%. News 6 Anchor Lisa Bell spoke with CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger to dig deeper into the Consumer Price Index.
One of the latest bills filed ahead of the upcoming Florida Legislative session could change state rules regarding how flags are displayed.
The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from attending an event in the Oval Office after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has ordered renamed to the Gulf of America.
At Tuesday night’s Brevard County Commission meeting, a county commissioner who rallied with the firefighters will lead the search for solutions to getting firefighters a starting wage that’s better than just $15/hour. Commissioner Katie Delaney told News 6 reporter James Sparvero that could possibly mean raising taxes.
The Florida Legislature is going back to Tallahassee starting Tuesday to make changes to recently-passed — and contentious — legislation to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
Staffers at the nation’s cybersecurity agency whose job is to ensure the security of U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave, jeopardizing critical support provided to state and local election offices across the country.
In a significant move to address homelessness in the region, the Orlando City Council has approved plans for the expansion of the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida shelter. This expansion will include a new 9,000-square-foot facility dedicated to providing more resources for unhoused women and children.
Orlando arrested more than two dozen people for camping violations in January, according to an Orlando Sentinel tally of court records for the first month of a tough new law that many feared would lead to criminalizing the unsheltered.
President Donald Trump’s budget chief has sent an email to consumer protection agency employees telling them to stop working.
Special Florida House panels are teed up next week to scrutinize Gov. Ron DeSantis’ line-item budget vetoes, setting up possible overrides amid a dispute between the governor and Republican legislative leaders over immigration-enforcement plans.
Several people upset about a Palm Bay councilman's statements against Islam tried to address him at Thursday night's council meeting. But Chandler Langevin is not backing down.
Volusia County on Tuesday became the latest Central Florida jurisdiction to ban camping in public. With a 7-0 vote, the council unanimously approved an ordinance that mirrors the new state law, better known as “Florida’s Camping Ban.”
The Volusia County Council is now considering several proposals, including ending construction on wetlands and finding ways to buy out properties that are frequently flooded. A special meeting is scheduled for Tuesday to discuss these options.
Peter Filiberto, the former Palm Bay councilman who was ousted in 2023 after he was arrested, is back in city government. At the end of Thursday’s city council meeting, Deputy Mayor Mike Jaffe announced that he had appointed Filiberto to the influential planning and zoning board.
The city of Cocoa Beach is considering raising fees for short-term rental properties in response to growing complaints from residents about noise, parking issues, and other disturbances.
Arguing that elections officials overstepped their authority, state Rep. Debbie Mayfield on Thursday filed an emergency petition at the Florida Supreme Court after being blocked from running in a special election for a Senate seat.
Deltona Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. defended his decision to go to Washington, with the city allegedly paying some of the costs, as commissioners plan a hearing on the matter.
The Senate has confirmed Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee for White House budget director.
It's been more than a year now since Brevard County and its firefighters got to work on a new contract. As difficult negotiations continue, more than 100 firefighters have quit their jobs in search of better pay and work-life balance.
Several federal health agencies are facing lawsuits over the removal of crucial health data from their websites. This action follows an executive order signed by President Trump, prompting changes to existing guidelines.
With how muddy some Florida roads can get, it’s probably not much of a surprise for Florida drivers when they get some dirt on their tail ends.
FBI agents who participated in investigations related to President Donald Trump have sued over Justice Department efforts to develop a list of employees involved in those inquiries that agents fear could be a precursor to discipline or termination.
For Duke residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt hours, the storm costs represent a $32.40 increase on monthly bills, according to a commission staff recommendation. But commissioners pointed to other upcoming changes in Duke bills, with the utility saying the net increase in March on a 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential bill will be $22.62.
Gambling on sports has become completely normalized in society but that normalization has led to a spike in calls to Florida's sole problem gambling center — a center that's currently not receiving any state funding.
Law enforcement leaders, mental and physical health officials, homeless advocates and legal experts convened Friday for the first in a series of meetings to look into the increase in the inmate population at the Orange County Jail.
INRIX studies congestion in around 1,000 metro areas, and of the 300 areas they studied in the U.S., Orlando ranks number 38, with drivers losing 27 hours a year waiting in traffic.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, TPS is a designation allowing residents from certain countries to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation due to ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, epidemics, or other extraordinary conditions. Seventeen countries are currently designated for TPS.
