Florida News That Impacts You – August 13th, 2026
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you throughout the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast.
- A workers’ compensation fraud ring operating primarily in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast has been taken down. Florida AG James Uthmeier announced the arrests of seven people charged with the scheme that’s alleged to have processed approximately $100 million fraudulently. The scheme is said to have been a pattern of shell construction companies controlled by the schemers that would obtain workers’ compensation insurance policies and then rent the certificates to uninsured subcontractors. $2.4 million was confiscated at the time of the arrests.
- With early voting underway for the August 18th primary elections, a total of 1,293,322 voters had cast ballots through Tuesday. Democrats are leading in ballots cast with vote-by-mail ballots with Republicans posting an advantage with early in person voting. Republicans now lead in turnout by 25,720 voters thus far.
- The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is warning of a new bank scam operation that nearly resulted in a $600,000 theft. A scammer impersonating a banker instructed a senior to back his back account up with physical gold. The senior was instructed to buy the gold from a legitimate local business, however, was instructed to authorize a third-party driver to pick up the gold that would then be delivered to the bank. The senior purchased the gold, however quickly realized something didn’t seem right and contacted his bank and authorities which stopped the scheme before the gold had been picked up.
- Big Dog Ranch rescue has successfully relocated all Beagles from the failed Ridglan Farms breeding operation in Wisconsin. The operation that began on April 29th resulted in the rescue of 2,115 beagles with the final 155 beagles rescued from the breeder this week. The dogs are being readied for adoption.
- It'll be partly cloudy and hot today with highs in the low 90’s with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. It’ll be warmer than usual for this date with a heat advisory in place for all of South Florida and the Treasure Coast. Similar weather is expected tomorrow. The National Hurricane Center is tracking three systems. Tropical Storm Cristobal in the central Atlantic is moving east and is expected to dissipate later today. A disturbance in the south central Atlantic has an 80% chance of development as it slowly moves towards the Lesser Antilles and is worth keeping an eye on. A second disturbance in the eastern Atlantic South of the Cabo Verde Islands has a 50% chance of development over the next seven days as it tracks west-northwestward. Persistent Saharan dust from the coast of Africa extends over most of the southern and mid-Atlantic with dust extending over the Caribbean, Cuba, through the Gulf of America and will work inhibit limit the development potential of these systems.
- The price of gas moved a penny per gallon higher on Wednesday. The average price for regular unleaded fuel statewide is currently $3.95 per gallon. In Palm Beach County the average price is $4.10 per gallon, in Martin the average is $3.97, it’s $3.96 in St. Lucie, and in Indian River County the average is $3.95 per gallon.