Florida News That Impacts You – January 23rd, 2025
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you throughout the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast.
- Two special elections for vacated seats in the Florida legislature have been scheduled by Governor DeSantis. A state house seat vacated by Republican Joel Rudman and a state senate seat vacated by Republican Randy Fine, both of whom are running in special elections for Congress, will have primaries take place on April 1st with the general elections on June 10th. DeSantis was recently sued by the ACLU for not having scheduled the special elections. The timing means both seats will be vacant for the upcoming state legislative session in March.
- Ice detained 6 criminal Illegal immigrants from Guatemala living in Martin County who had criminal convictions for battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing and vandalism on Tuesday as the Trump Administration's deportation operation commenced.
- Local business owners and residents turned out to provide vocal opposition to a proposed new Riveria Beach ordinance that would institute paid parking at Ocean Walk and in the Marina Districts. Proposed fees would range from $2 for two hours or less up to $40 hours for eight hours.
- The Martin County Sherrif’s Office is warning residents of new text message and letter scams. Messages and letters purporting to be from the Florida Department of Transportation suggest there are unpaid tolls due, and excessive late fees and potential legal action will ensue unless the balance stated in the messages is paid. The text messages include fake links that are made to look legitimate – authorities warn residents not to click them and to contact Sunpass or the DOT directly if you have any questions about a potential unpaid balance.
- Morning showers should give way to cloudy skies by the afternoon with highs in the low 60’s, which is considerably cooler than usual for this date. Cooler and drier air will be moving into our area tonight with temps dropping into the 40’s by Friday morning.
- Gas prices dropped another two cents per gallon on Wednesday. The average price for regular unleaded in Florida is currently $3.12 per gallon. In Palm Beach County the average price is $3.28 per gallon, in Martin the average is $3.11 and in Indian River County the average is $3.09 per gallon.