Katy Sorenson, who served on the Miami-Dade County Commission from 1994 to 2010 and founded the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami, is backing fellow Democrat Robin Peguero for Congress.

Peguero’s campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar in Florida’s 27th Congressional District announced Sorenson’s support.

The campaign included a statement from Sorenson, who called Peguero “genuine, intelligent, thoughtful and experienced.”

“His can-do spirit radiates positivity and, in these dark times, it gives us hope for the future,” she said.

Peguero, a former prosecutor, has also been endorsed by  Miami-Dade School Board member Joe Geller, Key Biscayne Council member Franklin Caplan, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro, Cutler Bay Council member B.J. Duncan, former U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, and former state Reps. Annie Betancourt and J.C. Planas.

Ex-Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who withdrew from the race for Florida’s 27th Congressional District and immediately endorsed Peguero in August.

Peguero also carries support from the political arms of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus.

Peguero will face at least two Primary opponents in CD 27: accountant Alexander Fornino and entrepreneur Richard Lamondin.

CD 27 — one of three Florida districts that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has highlighted as “in play” — covers Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and several unincorporated areas.

A Lehigh Acres man convicted of child pornography-related charges has been sentenced to six decades behind bars.

Attorney General James Uthmeier announced this week that his Statewide Prosecution Office has secured a 60-year prison sentence for a 38-year-old man who was convicted of the charges in November.

Phuc Minh Tran was sentenced Monday after his conviction on 40 counts of child pornography possession.

Tran, 38, was found guilty on Nov. 10, and sentencing was issued this week in a case that began more than a year ago. He’ll spend his sentence in a Florida Department of Corrections prison.

“Instead of getting coal in his stocking, this child predator will spend his next 60 Christmases behind bars,” said Uthmeier in a news release. “Justice was delivered with this sentence. I thank Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Agnieszka Thomas and Deputy Statewide Prosecutor Julie Chaikin for putting this predator where he belongs.”

Tran was arrested initially on Aug. 15, 2024, after Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents executed a search warrant at his residence. They were tipped off when the FDLE cyber squad picked up clues that he was downloading child pornography on his computer in his Southwest Florida home.

The trial of Tran lasted a week before a jury. The panel found Tran guilty on all 40 counts. All were felony charges. They included multiple counts of second-degree possession, control of, or intentionally viewing child pornography.

Uthmeier’s office has stepped up prosecutions of high-profile suspected child offenders in recent months.

A 35-year-old Oxford man was charged with multiple felonies in connection with a Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution investigation into online sexual abuse materials.

Uthmeier said in a news release earlier this month that investigators focused on Brent Wells and his activity on the online platform Snapchat at his home in the Central Florida town just west of The Villages. Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents initiated the investigation on Dec. 3 after getting a cyber tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about sexual abuse materials being uploaded on Wells’ Snapchat account.

The FDLE agents and investigators with Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution executed a search warrant at Wells’ home in Oxford on Dec. 5. That action also included seizing Wells’ cellphone. Uthmeier said that resulted in finding more digital files depicting sexual acts with children and animals.

Meanwhile, A Hernando County man was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges related to allegations he committed sexual battery on a child under 12 in November.

Thirty-six-year-old Nathan Douglas Holmberg had indictments on 25 criminal counts returned against him after an extensive investigation by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office and the Office of Statewide Prosecution, Uthmeier announced last month. The indictments include seven charges of capital sexual battery on a child under 12.

Uthmeier said his statewide prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Holmberg.

It’s wind-down time for the Citrus County Hospital Board.

Created by legislative act in 1949 to oversee health care through what would become Citrus Memorial Hospital, the CCHB has outgrown its usefulness.

If a bill filed by Inverness Rep. JJ Grow becomes law, the CCHB will cease to exist on Oct. 1, 2026.

HB 4043 requires the hospital Board to dissolve and turn its remaining assets over to the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners.

The county would also oversee the 50-year lease with Hospital Corporation of America, which has operated what is now HCA Florida Citrus Hospital since 2013.

“We’ve been talking about this for six years,” hospital Board Chair Dr. Mark Fallows said in October when the Board voted to seek legislative dissolution.

Attorney William Grant, who has represented the CCHB for two decades, said a smooth transition will take several months.

“We want to be able to sunset in a way that’s consistent with the mission and the good work that all of you have done,” Grant said.

The CCHB existed in relative anonymity as a low-level taxing district for years. In 1987, its members, Governor appointees, created a separate nonprofit foundation Board to oversee hospital operations.

Those two boards eventually splintered when the foundation amended its bylaws in 2006 to increase its size, effectively placing hospital Board members in the minority.

Detailed reviews of the hospital’s finances showed significant instability.

“The hospital started getting deeper and deeper in debt,” Fallows told Citrus County Commissioners.

The CCHB and the Foundation Board agreed to seek bids to either sell or lease the hospital. They received bids from three for-profit hospitals and one nonprofit and, in 2013, decided with HCA on a 50-year, $131 million lease.

The CCHB stopped collecting taxes in 2013, but its role did not end. Lawmakers in 2014 created the Citrus County Community Charitable Foundation to disburse interest payments from lease proceeds to meet the medical needs of Citrus County citizens. Its members represent a cross-section of Citrus County, including two elected officials.

More recently, the CCHB settled a dispute with the Agency for Health Care Administration. AHCA sought $5 million in Medicaid overpayments to CMH over 10 years; CCHB reduced that amount to $650,000.