The Senate cleared a bill with bipartisan support Wednesday to give more services to children with autism.

“What we’re doing today is we’re sending a message to those parents,” said Senate President Ben Albritton Wednesday after he called the initiative a priority when the Legislative Session started this month. “We hear you, and we see you and we’re running to your fight.”

The legislation could provide new resources to more than 20,000 Florida preschoolers diagnosed with autism and 66,000 school-age children, lawmakers said as SB 112 passed 38-0.

“We look at the services that we are providing for them. Is it adequate? Is it enough? Are we really doing what the state of Florida needs to do to diagnose, treat and provide services to individuals with autism,” said Sen. Gayle Harrell on the Senate floor Wednesday before the vote. “This bill is the next step.”

The bill proposes sweeping changes, including applying for federal funding to expand the Early Steps intervention program to care for up to 4-year-olds. The age limit is currently 3-years-old.

A Florida Department of Health grant program would also be expanded to offer free autism screenings and referrals.

“The earlier you have a child diagnosed with autism, the better the outcome, the more they are able to adapt, the more they are able to communicate,” Harrell said.

To advance research and provide information to parents, the bill establishes the University of Florida Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment as the statewide hub coordinating with state and local agencies. UF would develop a free online “mico-credential,” and the state would pay providers a stipend if they complete it to get additional training caring for young people with autism. The UF hub would oversee startup grants for autism charter schools and summer camps for young people with autism.

Harrell, a Republican from Stuart, called the issue personal since she has two nephews on the autism spectrum.

“This is step one,” she told her colleagues. “Who is going to join me?”

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Under a bill advancing in the Legislature’s upper chamber, media outlets would have to remove false, defamatory, or outdated reports from their websites.

Proponents of the measure say it’s a needed update to legal standards that did not contemplate the internet’s ubiquity.

Critics contend it will do far more harm than good.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-2 for SB 752, Florida’s latest bill to erode the First Amendment protections media outlets have long enjoyed.

If passed, it would require a news publication or broadcast station to permanently delete any report on its web server if it learns, either through a court decision or information that a “reasonable person” would believe, that the report contains false or defamatory information.

If an outlet refuses to take down the story, it will lose fair report privilege considerations in defamation and libel lawsuits.

The site must erase the story even if just one word or sentence is incorrect. Stories that no longer reflect up-to-date information, such as the exoneration or nonprosecution of someone, would also have to be removed.

The bill would also revise Florida law so that the statute of limitations for legal action begins on the last day the report was accessible online rather than when it was published.

Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon, the bill’s sponsor, said state law today provides that if a publication or broadcast outlet publishes falsehoods or defamatory statements, they are under no obligation to remove the information online.

“This can be devastating to a person because the false information will pop up any time someone searches the victim’s name,” he said. “And no one hires anyone without doing such a search.”

Simon filed the bill on behalf of lawyer Barry Richard, the husband of Tallahassee Democratic Rep. Allison Tant. Its inspiration is the story of one of Richard’s Miami clients, who was accused of a crime in 2017 for which the State Attorney declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence. The man later sued his accusers for defamation and won.

But more than seven years later, Richard told the Committee that a Google search of his client’s name produced images of the man in shackles and an orange jumpsuit alongside reporting that only listed the charges he could have faced.

“He was a successful executive businessman,” Richard said. “He has been called multiple times by headhunters because of companies that were interested in interviewing him. They set up interviews, but before he arrives, every time, it’s canceled because nobody hires anymore without Googling a name.”

Simon said his legislation seeks to compel outlets to remove such stories, even if the reporting in them is accurate and factual.

“In the event that case has run its course and they are found to be (innocent), we’re asking that story be taken down,” he said.

Simon confirmed his bill applies only to the original poster of the report, not to other outlets that pick up the news and refer to it. He added that it also doesn’t apply to comments on news websites or posts on social media “because that steps on … First Amendment rights, and we’re not going to do that.”

St. Augustine Republican Sen. Tom Leek, a lawyer by training, called SB 752 “a very good bill.” He said long-standing protections for media did not consider the internet, and new rules are needed to protect people from reputational harm.

“In the old days, that picture of a guy in shackles and an orange jumpsuit would have ended up on the bottom of somebody’s birdcage or cat box and then into the archives, and it would be done,” he said.

Tamarac Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood agreed and complained of being a frequent target of denigration by her hometown newspaper.

“As elected officials, people think they can just say what they want to say and lie on you and drag you, and nothing is done about it. And it hurts your kids. It hurts your reputation,” she said. “We have to have freedom of speech, but it needs to be with integrity.”

Others saw the potential for negative impacts.

Boca Raton Democratic Sen. Tina Scott Polsky said what happened to Richard’s client was unfortunate and that the outlet should have taken the story down voluntarily. But it didn’t report anything inaccurately.

“It doesn’t take away from the fact that it happened, and that’s what news is,” she said. “(This bill) is just clunky, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. There is so much attack on the media now because of our President, because of our Governor. There are lawsuits left and right against very valid news organizations, and this is only going to feed into that frenzy.”

Polsky and Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman, a fellow lawyer, voted against SB 752.

James Lake, a lawyer who teaches and practices defamation law, told the panel that the bill contradicts the Legislature’s recent efforts on tort reform. He warned that, as written, the measure’s removal of fair report privilege protections could make anyone, including conservative commentators, subject to defamation suits.

Sam Morley, general counsel for the Florida Press Association, argued the bill is too vague, citing, among other things, its removal requirement that could conceivably extend to campaign and political ads.

Archive sites and online republications have essentially made most of what is posted online permanent in some fashion, he said, and Simon’s proposal would prevent news outlets from doing what they’ve traditionally done to address inadvertent falsehoods or inaccuracies: correcting the story and noting that correction.

“Why require the publisher to take down the version of the story containing a correction or an apology?” he said. “If you do that, the only version of (the report) that will continue to live on the internet will be the original, false version.”

SB 752 and its House analog (HB 667) by Inverness Republican Rep. J.J. Grow are spiritual successors to bills Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade unsuccessfully carried in 2023 and 2024.

Last year’s version of Andrade’s legislation, which had Senate support from Lake Mary Republican Sen. Jason Brodeur, would have lowered the bar in defamation lawsuits by shifting the burden of proof from the plaintiff to the defendant. It also would have required courts to accept as fact that if a defamatory statement about a public figure is published and the statement relied on an anonymous source, the publisher acted with malice.

Gov. Ron DeSantis boosted the concept in 2023 to hold national media outlets accountable. Still, Andrade’s bill drew the ire of several conservative outlets and criticism from Stephen Miller, a policy adviser to President Donald Trump, who suggested the change could suppress conservative speech.

SB 752 will next go to the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, after which it has one more stop before reaching a floor vote. HB 667 awaits a hearing before the first of two committees to which it was referred.

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The six-county First Coast region saw a drop in single family home sales in February compared to a year ago.

New figures released by the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR) show a sizable dip in closed sales on houses last month compared to February 2024. There was a 19.2% decline in homes sold in the year-over-year comparison. There were 1,271 houses sold last month, down from 1,573 sold a year ago.

The monthly comparison did see an 8.7% increase, up from January’s figure of 1,169 houses sold. January, though, is typically one of the most sluggish months of the year coming out of the holiday stretch.

While sales dropped from a year ago, the median sales price did see a nominal increase. In the year-over-year comparison, the Northeast Florida typical sales price increased by 1.1%, to $389,989. The monthly price increased 4% compared to January, which at $375,000 was the lowest figure in the past 12 months.

A nagging issue for First Coast home sales in recent months is the number of houses on the market, which has been ballooning for much of the past year. Northeast Florida’s inventory of homes for sale in February jumped by 69.9% compared to the same time in 2024. That amounts to 7,954 single-family homes on the market. That figure is a 10.7% increase from January’s figure.

Duval County, the First Coast’s most populous county and home to Jacksonville, saw a drop in home sales in February compared to last year, going from to 780 closings to 667. That’s down by 14.5% compared to February 2024, but is up by 8.5% from last month.

Active inventory skyrocketed year-to-year by 89.7%, to 3,893 homes for sale in Duval compared to the active inventory of 2,052 a year ago. It’s also a 10.2% increase from January. Median home sale prices dropped by 4.4% from a year ago to $334,000, though that figure is up by 5.4% over January.

St. Johns County’s home sales dropped to 303 in February, a 26.8% decline from a year ago, but a 7.8% increase from January. The median sales price did go up to $549,000, an 11.5% increase from a year ago and a 4.6% jump from January. Inventory went up too, coming in at 2,081 houses on the market, or a 39.7% increase from a year ago and a 15.4% jump from January.

Nassau County’s monthly figures were mixed, with 82 closed sales in February. That’s a 13.7% decline from a year ago, but a 22.4% increase from January. The median sales price increased slightly compared to a year ago, up by 1.7% from to $457,450. That spelled a 2.7% dip from January. Inventory went up to 486 homes on the market, a 29.9% increase from a year ago and a 5.7% uptick from January.

Clay County saw a notable drop in annual home sales in February with 177 closings, a 22.7% plunge from a year ago, but a 10.6% increase compared to January. Median home sale prices remained fairly steady, coming in at $352,900. That’s a 1.7% increase from a year ago and a 0.2% dip compared to January. Inventory went way up, ending with 1,137 homes on the market, accounting for a 102.3% increase from a year ago and a 10.1% jump from January.

Putnam County saw nominal changes with only 32 homes sold in February, the same figure as January but a 30.4% decrease from last year. Median sales prices were $257,500, a 6% increase from a year ago and a 10.8% increase from January. The inventory figure was still notable in Putnam with 277 homes on the market, a 71% jump from a year ago and a 1.1% decline from January.

Baker County, the least populous county in the Northeast Florida region, recorded only 10 home sales last month. That’s an 11.1% increase from a year ago and a 2.5% decline from January. The median home sales price was $311,500, which is a 25.1% increase from a year ago and a 2.5% drop from January. There were 80 homes on the market in February, which is a 90.5% jump from a year ago and a 6.7% uptick from January.

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