Orlando

Larry GriffinJanuary 4, 2017

Amber Mariano is a UCF student, but she’s also a newly-elected member of the House of Representatives from New Port Richey. That may be why her first two bills filed, HB 153 and HB 155, have to do with reducing the financial burden on college students. HB 153 deals with excess credit surcharges, increasing the […]

Scott PowersJanuary 4, 2017

Wednesday is the day that Orange County’s voters figured they had turned their sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, clerk of courts, supervisor of elections and comptroller into non-partisan, term-limited county officials – but it’s not happening. And it is unclear if it will ever happen. Late Tuesday Judge Bob Leblanc of Florida’s 9th Circuit Court […]

Scott PowersJanuary 3, 2017

NASA has extended additional flight contracts to the two private companies hired to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and reported that the first such flight now is expected no earlier than May, 2018. In an announcement made Tuesday, NASA reported that Boeing and SpaceX now each will be hired to run […]

Scott PowersJanuary 2, 2017

U.S. Rep.-elect Stephanie Murphy has named her top congressional staff while announcing she intends to maintain two district offices – in Orange and Seminole counties, Murphy, the Winter Park Democrat elected in November to represent Florida’s 7th Congressional District, announced that Brad Howard will serve as her chief of staff, John Laufer as her deputy […]

Scott PowersJanuary 2, 2017

U.S. Rep.-elect Val Demings has announced her senior congressional staff, a mixture of those who supported her 2016 election in Orlando and some Washington D.C. savvy. That begins with Wendy Anderson as the Orlando Democrat’s chief of staff, and includes Caroline Rowland as her communications director and Sonja White as her district director in Central […]

Scott PowersJanuary 2, 2017

Orlando lawyer and Republican fundraiser Ben Newman also is known — sadly not to all — as a merry prankster and over the weekend had many believing he was leaving the powerful GrayRobinson law firm to run a burrito truck. Me among them. Sorry about that. Newman has left GrayRobinson, where he’s been a shareholder […]

Scott PowersJanuary 2, 2017

A before-and-after time line now exists for Orlando – June 12, 2016 – and on this side of the Pulse massacre the city may be seen by the world and through its own citizens’ eyes as a very different place, with a new political perspective. Before June 12, Orlando was a city without an an […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterDecember 30, 2016

If you can’t make it to Times Square to ring in 2017, have no fear: The nation’s best place to party might be closer than you think. A new WalletHub report ranked Orlando as the best place to celebrate New Year’s Eve. And the Central Florida city wasn’t the only Sunshine State city on the […]

Scott PowersDecember 29, 2016

Story co-written by Orlando-Rising staff reporters Scott Powers and Lawrence Griffin. In Orlando, 2016 will always be remembered as the year of the Pulse gay nightclub massacre, and Pulse redefined everything; but it’s not the only major event to have shaped politics in Orlando during the year. Here are a few events that defined politics […]

Scott PowersDecember 27, 2016

Orlando’s U.S. Rep.-elect Val Demings is entering Congress as one of the Democrats’ leaders. Demings was elected in December to represent Florida’s 10th Congressional District, covering Representative-elect Val Demings’ office announced Tuesday she has been appointed by Democratic leadership to serve as an Assistant Whip in the Democratic Caucus. The former Orlando Police Chief will […]

Orlando

Amber Mariano, UCF student and Florida House member, files bills to reduce financial burden on students

Orange County’s charter amendments falling silently; despite election, no changes in county offices

NASA hires SpaceX, Boeing for more astronaut flights, pushes first to May 2018

Stephanie Murphy names senior congressional staff

Val Demings announces senior staff in Congress

Ben Newman New Year’s prank: leaving GrayRobinson for possible political run, not love of burritos

Politics in Orlando now takes place in a post-Pulse city

Orlando, Miami ranked among top places for New Year’s Eve celebrations

2016 in Orlando politics: Pulse, outside money, hotel taxes, frogs

Val Demings named assistant whip for Congressional Dems