Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida and UCF have agreed to play a two-for-one series that begins in 2024 and concludes nearly a decade later, settling on the kind of arrangement the Gators wanted for years.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose re-election campaign is selling koozies quoting him saying, “How the hell am I going to drink a beer with a mask on?” held a private meeting Monday with doctors to oppose mask mandates in public schools.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — An Indiana man has received a life prison sentence for stalking his estranged wife to Florida, shooting her and burying her body in Tennessee, court records show.

Jarvis Wayne Madison, 62, of New Albany, Indiana, was sentenced Monday in Orlando federal court, according to the court records.

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff is sending letters to people with criminal histories offering help to get on a better path, a practice critics call unwarranted harassment.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco's letter is the latest step in a broad effort to monitor people considered likely lawbreakers.

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A man who was convicted of abducting, raping and killing an 11-year-old Florida girl as she walked home in 2004 died in prison on Monday, the state Attorney General's Office said.

WESTFORD, N.Y. (AP) — A Florida woman was killed when her parachute malfunctioned as she was skydiving in upstate New York, police said.

Karen Bernard, 59, of Wildwood, was killed at around 9 a.m.

MILTON, Fla. (AP) — A pilot brought his small plane down on the shoulder of Interstate 10 after running out of fuel, officials said.

No one was injured when the planed made an emergency landing around 7:30 p.m.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A suspect fleeing from a traffic stop in Florida crashed into another car, killing two people, police said Sunday.

The Leon County Sheriff's Office said a deputy pulled over a car early Sunday morning and made contact with the driver and a passenger.

BUNNELL, Fla. (AP) — A man in a cylindrical floating contraption washed ashore in Florida Saturday in an apparent attempt to walk on water to New York.

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office reported that the man left St.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida murder suspect killed himself after a shootout with deputies when investigators following him pulled over his Uber driver in a traffic stop, authorities said Friday.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A man apparently shot himself by accident while showing Florida bar customers his gun Thursday night,

The man can be seen on surveillance video showing his gun to customers at O'Riley's Uptown Tavern in Pensacola before making a quick motion as if putting it into a pretend holster below his shoulder.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (15-5)

CAMP SITE: Tampa, Florida

LAST YEAR: With Tom Brady excelling despite not having a normal offseason and training camp to prepare for his first season with a new team, the Bucs shrugged off a three-game losing streak that dropped them to 7-5.

DELAND, Fla. (AP) — A man in a travel lane of Interstate 95 in Florida died Saturday after being struck by multiple vehicles, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The man was first struck by a southbound car in Volusia County just before 6 a.m..

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases again jumped significantly this week as the vaccination rate in rural counties where some of the worst outbreaks are occurring remains well below the state and national averages.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man will serve life in prison without parole for the 2018 slayings of his girlfriend and their young special-needs daughter, a judge ruled Friday.

The sentence for Ronnie Oneal III was a foregone conclusion when a jury opted in June not to recommend the death penalty.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Florida truck driver has been arrested in the February shooting death of a man in downtown Springfield, police there said.

Thomas Haynes, 45, was arrested Thursday in Springfield on charges of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of 32-year-old Robert Moffett, police said in a news release.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida lawn worker saved a driver who was having a seizure in his still-moving car, despite the indifference of other bystanders, authorities said.

On Monday, the man — who was identified only as Tony by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office — saw the driver was having what appeared to be a serious medical problem.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man returning home from a doctors appointment found a stranger skinny dipping in his backyard swimming pool, sheriff's officials said.

At first, the man only noticed clothes scattered across his lanai earlier this week, Charlotte County Sheriff's officials said in a social media post Tuesday.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rebuffed calls for an emergency declaration to address a red tide outbreak in Tampa Bay that's killed hundreds of tons of fish and other marine life, saying Wednesday it would do more harm than good.

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) — Two police officers from Florida's Space Coast rescued a driver whose car had plunged off a causeway into a river, authorities said.

The unidentified driver was on the Eau Gallie Causeway in Melbourne early Tuesday when it plunged off the roadway into the Indian River, according to a report from Melbourne Police Department.

LINCOLN, N.H. (AP) — A family of ill-prepared hikers from Florida was rescued on Mount Lafayette this week, and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is recommending that they be billed for the “preventable rescue."

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A driver in a crash that killed a college soccer player in 2017 was acquitted by a jury during a retrial that centered around a dispute over speed calculations.

LONDON (AP) — Arsenal pulled out of the Florida Cup and canceled its pre-season trip to the United States after members of its traveling party tested positive for COVID-19, the club said Wednesday.

MIAMI (AP) — Officials in Florida's most populous county are encouraging residents to get vaccinated against coronavirus as infection rates once again spike in the state.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other government, public safety and health officials released a statement Tuesday urging people to take the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) — It's a smelly situation in central Florida after a crash involving a tractor trailer and a dump truck left cow manure over a portion of Interstate 95.

The Florida Highway Patrol said in a tweet that the crash happened Tuesday in the northbound lanes near mile marker 198.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Thirty people were arrested as part of the bust of a north Florida cockfighting ring, the state Department of Agriculture reported Tuesday.

Investigators serving a search warrant in Lafayette County last week found a crowd gathered watching roosters fighting to their death, the department said.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Forget an inauguration ceremony. The true indicator of having made it as president is being added to the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World in Florida, an honor President Joe Biden will soon receive.

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Sheriff's officials in the Florida Keys advise anyone participating in next week's two-day lobster mini season to be aware of state and local ordinances.

The season kicks off July 28 and wraps up the next day.