John Davis

After lifting a moratorium on elective surgeries in Florida, last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news briefing with surgeons at Lee Health’s Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers, Monday, encouraging people who may fear seeking medical treatment to schedule their procedures. 

As Floridians stock up on essentials in preparation for possible impacts of Hurricane Dorian, State Attorney General Ashley Moody has activated Florida’s Price Gouging hotline. 

Protesters in Southwest Florida demonstrated Tuesday afternoon, at events in Bradenton, Cape Coral, Naples and Sarasota against the Trump administration’s treatment, detention and family separation of migrants at the U.S. southern border.  The protests were among nearly 200 similar events taking place across the country. 

Florida fell from 6^th to 13^th place in the latest state-by-state ranking and report card on the quality of nursing home care.  The report comes from the Texas-based non-profit nursing home resident advocacy group Families for Better Care, Inc.  The results indicate a trend of declining inspection ratings for nursing homes across the country. 

Following a closed-door meeting with federal, state and local agencies on harmful algal blooms, Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney held a second roundtable meeting Friday that was open to the media and the public.

A Florida Senate committee, Wednesday, advanced a bill (SB 1402) which aims to place a longstanding federal program that protects wetlands through the Clean Water Act under state control. 

As South Florida reels from Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Broward County high school, State Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, is working to secure funding for Florida school districts to better identify and address mental health concerns in students early on. 

The cold front that moved through Florida this past weekend brought a light dusting of snow in some portions of the western Panhandle and even some light frost in Southwest Florida, but the cooler temperatures left Florida agriculture operations relatively unscathed. 

The world-class musicians of the non-profit chamber music group Sarasota Musica Viva are in the midst of their third full season performing at venues in and around the Sarasota region.  The group is known for introducing audiences to new and rarely performed pieces as well as fresh arrangements of traditional chamber works.

Congress missed a deadline at the end of September to reauthorize funding for the country’s community health centers, which provide access to primary care and other medical services for more than 27 million people nationwide.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott got an update from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials in Clewiston, Monday about the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee.  Scott’s visit came just a day after water levels in the lake surpassed 17 ft.

A state lawmaker wants to make it illegal to leave young children unattended in a car for any length of time in Florida.  The proposal, from Rep. Emily Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, is an effort to combat the problem of children dying from heat exposure after being left in a vehicle.

As the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center prepares to celebrate its centennial anniversary, researchers there say that they’re on the cusp of developing a cure to the most serious threat facing the citrus industry worldwide:  citrus greening. 

Warming temperatures and ocean acidification are significant threats to coral reefs, but a new study by Mote Marine Laboratory researchers last month provides something of a silver lining.   Researchers found that ocean acidification could actually help slow the progression of a disease that kills corals.

As residents and visitors flock to Florida beaches over the long Fourth of July holiday weekend, wildlife officials and advocates are urging beachgoers to be mindful of nesting shorebird colonies and sea turtles.

Internationally renowned photographer and environmental advocate Clyde Butcher suffered a stroke in early May on the left side of his brain, which has affected his right hand and arm as well as his right leg.  For more than 30 years, Butcher has hiked deep into Big Cypress National Preserve, the western Everglades and other natural Florida locations to capture his iconic black and white photographs of our region’s pristine wild spaces. 

As Florida’s Bald Eagle population continues to increase, state wildlife officials are considering changes to the state’s management plan for the iconic raptors. 

A federal court judge in Fort Myers ruled against a consortium of Environmental advocacy groups Monday in a lawsuit against the National Park Service and a Texas oil company.  The lawsuit was an attempt to prevent seismic testing for oil and gas reserves in Big Cypress National Preserve. 

Florida lawmakers are tackling a proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing, and other fracking-like well stimulation treatments in the state.  The Republican-sponsored bills in the House and Senate have gained a number of co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.  Supporters of the ban say the risks of surface water and ground water contamination from fracking make the technology too risky. They say the technique is incompatible with Florida’s geology.  Opponents worry about its impact on energy costs, Florida’s economy and point to the lack of a Florida-specific study on the potential impacts of fracking.  

Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio met with Southwest Florida citrus growers Friday in Immokalee to discuss challenges facing the industry and how the federal government can help.  The bacterial disease, citrus greening, has decimated the industry over the past decade, reducing crop yields by 70 percent compared to where they stood twenty years ago. 

The rate of babies born premature in Florida and around the nation increased in 2015 according to the recently released March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card. 

Sustainable food production is the next step in advancing manned space travel, and NASA has already begun growing vegetables on the International Space Station (ISS) through their "Veggie" project. The research will play a key role in feeding future astronauts on an anticipated mission to Mars, and the technology and expertise has roots in Southwest Florida

Thursday marked the last day of class at Manatee County’s Duette Elementary School - literally. It’s the end of an era as the one-room school house in the farming community about 40 miles outside of Bradenton closes for the last time.  Duette is the last one-room school house in Florida and had been one of only 27 left operating in the U.S.

  Thawing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba is allowing researchers with Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota to expand their coral research and possibly improve the health of Florida’s coral reef tract. 

  A new study by University of Florida researchers finds Florida strawberry growers would benefit by starting the growing season just a few weeks earlier each year.  Doing so could help growers maximize their profits and help Florida’s strawberry industry to remain competitive in the global market. However, actually implementing the study’s findings is not that simple.

  The Florida Department of Transportation recently announced plans to install wildlife exclusionary fencing and improve wildlife underpasses along a particularly deadly stretch of I-75 in an effort to prevent more panther roadkill deaths.

Manatee County Port Authority officials are looking to expand economic opportunities in preparing for increased shipping traffic once the Panama Canal expansion project is completed. 

A new study from the University of South Florida indicates that body-worn cameras on law enforcement officers are an effective tool in reducing the number of use of force incidents.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an update to its Agricultural Worker Protection Standard in late September.  The updates are intended to better protect against harmful pesticide exposure.  Farmworker advocates are celebrating the victory and what it will mean form the nation’s 2 million farmworkers, including nearly 300,000 in Florida.

Naloxone is a prescription medication used to rapidly counter the effects of opioids from powerful prescription pain-killers like morphine and OxyContin to street drugs like Heroin. While the drug’s effects are unpleasant, if administered quickly, it can revive people who’ve overdosed on opiate medications and save their lives. Florida lawmakers will consider a bill in the upcoming session to expand availability of naloxone by allowing physicians to prescribe the drug to friends or loved ones of those taking powerful prescription opioids so it could be quickly administered in the case of an overdose. Supporters of the measure point to the more than 2,000 accidental prescription overdose deaths in 2013. Opponents point to potential legal liability issues and argue the bill could encourage prescription drug abuse.