FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — For Florida, the 2010s were a decade of high-profile mass shootings: at a nightclub, a high school, an airport and a naval base - plus two headline-grabbing murder...
Outgoing Sen. Nelson warns of ‘gathering darkness’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Trump-allied Republican Ron DeSantis was formally elected governor of Florida and outgoing Gov. Rick Scott elected U.S. senator on Tuesday when the state certified election results two weeks after tight margins prompted tumultuous recounts.
The Elections Canvassing Commission met at the Florida Capitol to certify the results of the Nov. 6 election after two weeks of contention and finger-pointing. The meeting lasted a mere five minutes.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Florida's certification of election results (all times local):
9:05 a.m.
Florida's election is officially in the books two weeks after a contentious election that led to recounts and finger-pointing.
The Elections Canvassing Commission met Tuesday morning to certify the results of the Nov. 6 election, which was thrown into disarray as recounts were needed to determine the next governor, U.S. senator and agriculture commissioner.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — This was the year Florida's Democrats spoke ambitiously of ending their 20-year journey in political exile in this battleground state. Instead, election results after a tense and bruising recount showed Republicans coming out on top for governor and even picking up a U.S. Senate seat.
After a recount dragged on for nearly two weeks, top Democratic candidates in the state came agonizingly close but fell short of their avowed goal.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the results of Florida's election recount (all times local):
8:30 a.m.
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was "gracious" to him in a phone call to congratulate Scott on his victory over the longtime politician.
Scott told Fox & Friends on Monday morning that he told Nelson "if he has any ideas of how to do my job better, don't hesitate to call me."
Nelson concedes Fla. Senate race to Scott
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida political icon who first arrived on Capitol Hill in the decades when Democrats dominated this presidential battleground state, conceded his bitterly close re-election bid to Republican Rick Scott on Sunday after a bruising recount left Nelson thousands of votes short of the outgoing governor.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Volunteers gathered around folding tables Friday to begin a painstaking hand recount in Florida's acrimonious U.S. Senate contest, with a goal of determining the intent of about 93,000 voters whose ballots for Republican Gov. Rick Scott or Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson could not be counted by machine.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Sometimes voters put a check next to a candidate's name instead of filling in an oval that a voting machine can read. Other times, they mistake the abbreviation for "Republican Party" with the abbreviation for "Reform Party" and pick both in the same race. Some voters just cast blank ballots.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Florida's election recount (all times local):
7 p.m.
Election offices across Florida will have to hand count at a bare minimum almost 54,000 ballots in the U.S. Senate race.
A survey of 64 of Florida's 67 counties by The Associated Press put the number of overvotes and undervotes Thursday evening at 53,769 ballots in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and GOP Gov. Rick Scott.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lawsuits and judges' orders have been piling up across Florida as the state struggles through vote recounts for several races, including U.S. Senate and governor.
Six of the lawsuits that could have the most impact on the recount were filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee by Democrats. Others were filed by Republicans in a variety of counties.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Retired Judge Robert Rosenberg was front and center 18 years ago in Florida's infamous recount in the presidential contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.
Rosenberg, perhaps best remembered for eyeing ballots through a large looking glass, said in an Associated Press interview that he was brought in to lead the 2000 recount in Broward County and was determined to get it right.
"I had a job to do, and I wanted to do that job," Rosenberg said.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Florida's election recount (all times local):
5:30 p.m.
A federal judge says he is unlikely to let Florida election officials automatically count thousands of mail-in ballots that have signatures that do not match those on file.
Rick Scott appears with newly elected GOP senators

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the Florida recount of its Senate and governor elections (all times local):
9:30 p.m.
Florida's Democratic gubernatorial candidate says claims of electoral fraud without evidence by President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott were sowing seeds that could undermine confidence in the democratic process.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — At the center of Florida's vote recount storm is an elections supervisor with a checkered past whose Democratic-dominated county has been the target of protests and accusations, including by President Donald Trump, that something fraudulent is afoot.
TALLALHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the recounts in Florida's U.S. Senate and governor elections (all times local):
7:50 p.m.
Miami-Dade County elections officials say they've started recounting ballots from Tuesday's election.
Officials from the county's elections office confirmed Saturday evening that they've started a machine recount, which means they will load paper ballots into scanning machines. This could take days, considering there were some 800,000 ballots cast.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida is once again at the center of election controversy, but this year there are no hanging chads or butterfly ballots, like in 2000. And no angry mobs in suits — at least not yet.
Nelson: When all legal ballots counted,‘we’ll win’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida faced the prospect of recounts in the razor-thin races for governor and U.S. Senate, potentially prolonging the battle over two of this year's most-closely watched campaigns.
In the governor's race, Democrat Andrew Gillum's campaign said Thursday it's prepared for a possible recount. He conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis on Tuesday night, though the margin of the race has since tightened. As of Thursday afternoon, DeSantis led Gillum by 0.47 percentage point.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the Florida election (all times local):
9:45 p.m.
President Donald Trump is weighing in on Florida's hotly contested Senate race, citing the possibility of election fraud.
Trump tweets: "Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!"
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — If the Florida Senate race between incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott requires a recount, there is no need to worry about it being a repeat of the 2000 presidential debacle — there won't be any hanging chads and the process is likely to take days, not a month.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A bitter and expensive clash between Florida's Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson remains too close to call, despite Scott's declaration of victory.
Nelson has not conceded. His campaign says it's preparing for a recount and will have observers in every one of the state's 67 counties to monitor the process.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Election Day in Florida (all times local):
7:20 p.m.
As the race for a U.S. Senate seat for Florida appears headed for a recount, an attorney for the Democratic incumbent says the campaign is supporting a recount with the goal of winning.
An attorney for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said late Wednesday in a statement that he intends to aggressively examine and address reports of ballot problems.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Democrats tried something new and got the same result, losing the sixth straight governor's race, possibly losing all three Cabinet seats on Tuesday's ballot and winding up with a Senate race that's too close to call.
In short, the Democrats' blue wave hit President Donald Trump's figurative red wall, and once again Florida maintained its reputation for close elections — with Republicans having the edge.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Democrats tried something new and got the same result, losing the sixth straight governor's race, possibly losing all three statewide offices on Tuesday's ballot and winding up with a Senate race that's too close to call.
In short, the Democrats' blue wave hit President Donald Trump's figurative red wall, and once again Florida maintained its reputation for close elections — with Republicans having the edge.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate races in Florida and Arizona were too close to call Wednesday, raising the possibility of President Donald Trump gaining a more comfortable Senate majority.
Meanwhile, the outcome in the high-profile race for governor in Georgia and several campaigns for Congress remained uncertain, with ballots still being counted in California and Washington state and races that hadn't been called in Maine, New Jersey, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Republicans scored key victories in Florida as Ron DeSantis won the governor race. The GOP also won two of three Cabinet races and led in the third. The outcome of the Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott and incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson remained so close Wednesday that it appeared to be headed for a mandatory recount.
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday used his final Florida campaign event before next week's elections to implore supporters to send Republicans to the governor's mansion and the U.S. Senate, claiming that allowing Democrats to win either office would bring ruin to the state he also calls home.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump attacked Democrats in one corner of Florida on Saturday, while Margaritaville king Jimmy Buffett took musical shots at him and Gov. Rick Scott in another as the state's tight Senate and gubernatorial races reached the final weekend of campaigning.
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):
8:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump is sharing the stage at a Florida rally with the state's Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor, at the same time taking swipes at their Democratic opponents.
Trump's appearance Saturday night in Pensacola, Florida, followed a rally earlier in the day in Montana, part of a multistate sprint by the president toward Tuesday's midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Democrats are delivering competing closing arguments during the final weekend before Tuesday's elections, but their messages are complicated by a deadly shooting in a politically pivotal state.
Trump aimed to drum up voter turnout with events Saturday in Belgrade, Montana, and Pensacola, Florida, about 200 miles west of Florida's capital, Tallahassee, where two people were shot to death and five others wounded at a yoga studio on Friday night.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the final weekend campaign rallies in Florida (all times local):
5:15 p.m.
Famed Florida singer Jimmy Buffett took some musical shots at President Donald Trump and Gov. Rick Scott as he campaigned for the state's Democratic candidates.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Floridians could help determine control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as they decide whether to keep three-term incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in office or replace him with Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
MIAMI (AP) — Former President Barack Obama told attendees at a Friday campaign event for Florida's Democratic candidates that democracy can't work when words stop having meaning.
Obama encouraged a crowd of more than 4,000 to vote for gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and others during the event in Miami.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson accused the Trump administration of a "cover-up" after officials denied him entry Tuesday to a detention center for migrant children in South Florida where he had hoped to survey living conditions.
Nelson and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both Florida Democrats, went to the contractor-run Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children following reports it was receiving detained children who had arrived in the country illegally.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson accused the Trump administration of a "cover-up" after officials denied him entry Tuesday to a detention center for migrant children in South Florida where he had hoped to survey living conditions.
Nelson and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both Florida Democrats, went to the contractor-run Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children following reports it was receiving detained children who had arrived in the country illegally.
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The Latest on Hurricane Irma (all times local):
9:10 p.m.
A Florida nursing home where eight people died after Hurricane Irma will no longer receive state Medicaid funds.
Gov. Rick Scott announced Thursday night that he has directed the Agency for Health Care Administration to terminate the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills as a Medicaid provider. The program provides health care for low-income individuals and families.