Nicole Rodriguez

The cash-strapped federal disaster agency charged with distributing billions to hurricane survivors and wildfire-ravaged communities is reportedly failing to properly track disaster-relief payments, putting taxpayer money—and victims themselves—at risk for fraud, waste and abuse, a new government report shows.

Local officials say the Legislature has launched an assault on home rule by creating laws that strip cities and counties of their power to regulate local issues. Those new laws, officials claim, could have detrimental effects on the quality of life of local residents. Some legislators, however, are pushing back, defending their votes and arguing  the Legislature has an obligation to create laws that are consistent across the state.

A group of Treasure Coast residents Monday decried the prospect of a mosque near their neighborhood, saying the institution would become a breeding ground for terrorists. The handful of at times combative speakers told City Council the potential mosque — which would be the city’s first — would disturb the neighborhood with prayer five times a day and promote fear, hate and terror.

Peppered across the Treasure Coast are at least two dozen communities comprising more than 2,600 acres where development never wholly materialized. Many are like deserted ghost towns, visible remains of the boom years in the form of just a few completed homes, sometimes no homes at all or nothing more than partially built community entrances.

Instant public access to the emails of hundreds of Sarasota city officials and employees has been restricted by the city in a move some citizens and public records experts call an abandonment of transparency and erosion of public trust.

Presidential candidates in recent years have pounded the pavement on the Treasure Coast – their sights especially set on St. Lucie County – to connect with locals with the hope of capturing their vote on Election Day. The lure is large here, Democratic and Republican leaders across the Treasure Coast said Wednesday ahead of Hillary Clinton’s planned campaign stop in St. Lucie County.

The rumble of bulldozers, the clang of hammers and the hum of backhoes again are reverberating through Tradition, just as during the boom years, before the Great Recession brought development in the western portion of the city to a screeching halt. The distantly familiar sounds signify the return of better days and are evidence of Tradition's first growth spurt since the dark days of the economic downturn roughly a decade ago.

The state has grabbed control of medical marijuana dispensaries away from local governments by creating its own set of regulations, sending some Treasure Coast governments scrambling to adapt. The Legislature earlier this month passed Senate Bill 8A, which trumps local laws that cities and counties have imposed to regulate where and how medical marijuana dispensaries can operate. Gov. Rick Scott has pledged to sign the bill.

The city, the state and former Digital Domain CEO John Textor all will get multimillion-dollar payouts from a settlement in the two-year-old lawsuit against the defunct Digital Domain Media Group. Port St. Lucie and the state — which both provided economic incentives to bring Digital Domain here in 2009 — each will get about $3 million, according to the settlement, which was approved Friday by a federal bankruptcy judge.