Florida News That Impacts You – April 9th, 2026
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you throughout the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast.
- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a new partnership with forensic technology company Othram, which uses state-of-the-art DNA analysis to better identify suspects in criminal activity. The state believes the partnership holds the potential to solve many of the state’s 21,000 unsolved murder cases (many that are decades old).
- An update from Florida’s Senate President Ben Albritton on Wednesday suggested progress in being made in the budget standoff with the House, but that legislators will need to deliberate in person prior to a special session to hammer details out. Governor DeSantis has called a special session on April 20th to consider congressional redistricting, Albritton’s guidance suggests the legislature won’t be prepared to pass a budget prior to the start of that session. The legislature must approve a budget prior to the start of the state’s fiscal year July 1st.
- Indian River Sheriff Eric Flowers announced the result of the county’s recent narcotics crackdown dubbed “Operation Spring Cleaning”. 19 arrests were made (with one suspect still being pursued) during what Flowers said was a historic bust recovering approximately 460,000 counterfeit pills, and materials capable of producing an additional 600,000 pills with street value of up to $5 million. Additionally large quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, meth and 10 firearms, seven of which were stolen, were recovered.
- We’ll have rain throughout the day again today with gusty winds exceeding 30 mph in many locations. Today’s highs will be in the mid to upper 70’s – which is well below average for this date. We can expect rain to continue through Thursday.
- Gas prices fell another three cents per gallon Wednesday to $4.13 per gallon on average statewide. In Palm Beach County the average price is $4.28 per gallon, in Martin the average is $4.13, it’s $4.15 in St. Lucie, and in Indian River County the average is $4.14 per gallon.