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Gary Ray Bowles, a serial killer who preyed on older gay men during an eight-month spree that left six dead, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Florida State Prison.

A serial killer who preyed on older, gay men during an eight-month spree that left six dead on or near the U.S. East Coast a quarter century ago is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening.

Citrus County Sheriff Kenneth M. Prendergast fatally struck a pedestrian on U.S. 19 in Hernando County on Wednesday night, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

A private security company that was paid thousands of dollars to train school “guardians” in Palm Beach County signed off on armed school security that did not meet statutory training requirements, according to the chairman of the state’s school safety panel.

A proposed $248 million settlement has been filed in a decade-old federal court case over defective Chinese drywall blamed for damaging home appliances and sickening residents – including in the Tampa Bay area.

In a final pitch to a Senate special master, former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s lawyer is insisting that the suspended law enforcement officer wasn’t to blame for two deadly mass shootings that led to his ouster by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year.

More than 58,000 items will be available on Saturday during Florida’s 2019 unclaimed property auction in Orlando.

Showers and thunderstorms will become more numerous at times across the Florida peninsula by the end of the week thanks to an approaching tropical wave.

The wave is not expected to become a significant tropical event, but it is being monitored by the National Hurricane Center for potential development into a depression or a tropical storm over the next five days.

Nothing much Wednesday

In a matter of seconds early Tuesday morning, an implosion marked Tampa International Airport’s next step toward executing its master plan and expansion.

Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the White House to increase federal reimbursements from 75 percent to 90 percent for on-going recovery work following Hurricane Irma, which pummeled Florida nearly two years ago.

Floridians could add more sparkle to the Fourth of July and two other holidays, under the latest attempt to water down the state’s prohibition against fireworks.

While Tampa Bay returns to its regularly scheduled summertime conditions after a week of drenching rains and saturated grounds, repeating rounds of heavy rain could produce flooding across portions of the Florida Panhandle on Monday.

A baseball player from the Tampa Bay area and a softball slugger from Iowa won the inaugural Little League Home Run Derby on Saturday at the Little League World Series.

Everest Ouellette of Palm Harbor won the baseball competition after he hit his 15th home run — the one that sealed the victory — in walk-off fashion. He edged Nate Hawton-Henley of Oakton, Virginia, who had a few dozen family and friends from his hometown in attendance.

Hurricane Michael recovery efforts continue to plod along in the Florida Panhandle, as a high demand for labor is butting up against limited housing for workers in areas ravaged by the storm 10 months ago, according to business owners and officials.

Bolstered by U.S. and Canadian tourists, Florida’s visitor count continued at a record pace through the second quarter of 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said Thursday.

The Tampa Bay area remains under a flood watch as the rain that has saturated the ground and swelled area rivers remains intact.

If your child has a cellphone, odds are they spent a good part of their summer making videos on an app called TikTok or messaging their friends on Snapchat.  

But Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight says social media has made it easier than ever for online predators to contact kids.

More than 85 percent of all hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin occurs after the middle of August.

Some consider Aug. 15 as the “real” start to hurricane season. To others, like former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, it’s synonymous with the start of football season.

July was the hottest month measured on Earth since records began in 1880, the latest in a long line of peaks that scientists say backs up predictions for man-made climate change.

The Florida Bar has found no probable cause that Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz violated its rules in a tweet he posted about President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen.

A state school-safety commission meeting got heated Wednesday as members tackled a range of issues stemming from a controversial school “guardian” program, while one panelist recommended allowing Florida preschools to have armed security.

Two months after the state reported nearly 200 schools did not have an armed resource officer as required by state law, members of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission were frustrated to learn that more than two dozen Broward County charter schools lacked a long-term plan for the security guards.

Heading into a critical election year, Florida legislators may have to tighten spending because of a combination of a slowing economy and reverberations of financial decisions.

State economists on Wednesday drew up new estimates that predict the state will take in about $867 million less in revenue over two years than earlier anticipated. The new forecast was drawn up on the same day that the stock market tanked amid worries that a recession could be looming.

A group of survivors and family members of those killed in a mass shooting at Florida nightclub have formed an organization to oppose the building of a private museum to honor the victims.

Members of the Community Coalition Against a Pulse Museum said the nightclub should be torn down and the nightclub's owner should not build a private museum. Any memorial should be constructed on public property, and any money raised for the museum should be channeled to survivors, they said.

In anticipation of more heavy rain this week, the National Weather Service in Tampa has issued a Flood Watch for all of west-central Florida through Friday morning, with particular attention being paid to several rivers in the region.'

First it was the heat, and now it's the rain.

After enduring a few days of scorching conditions, the Tampa Bay area will have to deal with drenching rains, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a flood watch for the region through Friday.

According to Ray Hawthorne, meteorologist with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, the region has already received nearly 6 inches more rain than normal since June 1.

Prominent Orlando attorney John Morgan continues to put his money behind a proposed constitutional amendment that would gradually raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.