Florida News That Impacts You – February 2nd, 2026
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you throughout the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast.
- Freezing temps to start the day again throughout the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast as we’ve experienced the coldest temps in just over 16 years yesterday and today – with several cities including West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce and Vero Beach recording record low temperatures yesterday and likely today as well. Today’s high will reach the mid 50's. Temps will trend warmer after today, though, we’ll likely still have cooler than usual weather throughout the week.
- Sporadic power outages have occurred over the past couple of days due to extra strain on the grid with the unusually cold weather. There are only about 4,800 power outages statewide this morning, however nearly half of them are in Palm Beach and Martin County this morning.
- It appears no citizen-led proposed constitutional amendments will be on this year’s midterm election ballot. Sunday was the signature deadline for citizen-led proposals to be considered by the Florida Supreme Court for inclusion on this year’s ballot. As of Friday, the Florida Division of Elections showed the recreational marijuana proposal 96,470 signatures short after having collected about 20,000 signatures the previous week.
- Governor DeSantis announced that President’s Day, February 16th, will be an official state holiday this year providing state employees with the day off. The governor said Florida will recognize President Washington’s birthday – the original intent of President’s Day, for the nation’s 250th anniversary. As part of the recognition, the state will waive fees to parks from February 12th through the 16th.
- Gas prices fell three cents per gallon over the weekend – though they’re 5 cents higher than a week ago. The average price for regular unleaded in Florida is currently $2.90 per gallon. In Palm Beach County the average price is $3.07 per gallon, in Martin the average is $2.95, it’s $2.94 in St. Lucie, and in Indian River County the average is $2.94 per gallon.
- Palm Beach County leads the state in wasteful spending, according to Florida’s DOGE report. The full 99-page report was released on Thursday by the state. Over the past decade the county’s spending has increased by 80% more than population growth, with rising property taxes being the largest percentage contributor to the increased spending that’s taken place. The audit comes amid Governor DeSantis’ push for the elimination of homesteaded property taxes.