Darryl Rouson

At this point, Fentrice Driskell’s Democratic opposition in District 16 is state Rep. Michele Rayner, of St. Petersburg, who announced her bid in December. Republican Amaro Lionheart is also running.

USF agreed to name the Center for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Research for Sen. Darryl Rouson weeks after the House outraged senators by removing the proposal for the center from a bill.

A trial involving claims that State Senate District 16 was racially gerrymandered concluded. Although this is about one district, the anticipated decision could potentially shape Florida's future.

The vote came two days after senators angrily objected to the House amendment that killed the funding for a Sen. Darryl E. Rouson Center for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Research.

Lawmakers gave final approval to the redistricting plan in February 2022, and the districts were used in the 2022 elections.

The lawsuit says the Legislature’s plan to connect Black populations in the two counties in District 16 “sacrificed genuine communities of interest” and stripped them from adjacent District 18, reducing their influence there.

The program will compensate people who were at Dozier or the Okeechobee reform school between 1940 and 1975 and “who were subjected to mental, physical or sexual abuse perpetrated by school personnel.”

The redrawn districts in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties were approved by legislators in 2022 and used in the election that November. They are being challenged by five residents.

State Senator Darryl Rouson blocked consideration of the bill in the Senate.

A man shot in the neck by a Lakeland police officer more than two decades ago and a woman who was critically injured and later died after a Florida Highway Patrol officer used a stun gun on her are among the subjects of 10 newly filed “claim” bills in the state Senate.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign into law a bill that would allow people to carry a concealed gun without a permit after it passed the state Senate on Thursday.

Senators voted mostly along party lines to approve the bill prevents credit card companies from using a code that could help track firearm and ammunition sales.