A civil trial unfolding in a courtroom across from the Florida Capitol complex offers a mix of serious allegations against a sitting lawmaker and reality TV buffoonery.
Author Archives: Kate Payne
Kate Payne is The Florida Trib's state government reporter.
She’s spent her career in nonprofit newsrooms in Florida and Iowa and her reporting has run the gamut, from interviewing presidential candidates on the campaign trail to middle schoolers in the lunch line.
Kate has won awards for her political reporting, sound editing and feature writing and was named 2024 journalist of the year by the Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Kate’s previous newsrooms include the Associated Press, Iowa Public Radio and WLRN Public Media in Miami. Her stories and photographs have been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR and PBS, and her reporting on the death penalty has been cited in a filing at the U.S. Supreme Court.
You can reach Kate at kate.payne@floridatrib.org
Posted inFlorida News Articles & Reporting
Lawsuit challenges ‘unconstitutional’ ballot measure to slash Florida property taxes
The complaint was filed by a Fort Lauderdale-based firm on behalf of two former mayors and a days-old advocacy group dubbed “Save Our Voters From Misleading Ballot Language
Posted inState Government
‘Total victory’: Florida’s top court allows use of DeSantis’ new congressional maps
A ruling Wednesday by the Florida Supreme Court ensures that DeSantis’ Republican-friendly congressional map will remain in effect in the 2026 midterms
Posted inState Government
Federal reimbursement for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ starts flowing
The amount is a fraction of what Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has spent to build the sprawling tent-and-trailer compound at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades
Posted inFlorida News Articles & Reporting
From ‘low-cost’ to $1 million a day: questions remain about ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ funding
As legislators in Tallahassee are locked in back-and-forth negotiations over the state budget, GOP leaders have downplayed questions about who will ultimately pay for the multi-million-dollar facility
Posted inFlorida News Articles & Reporting
The rise and fall of an AI-driven ‘local news outlet’ in South Florida
The search to find out who was behind the South Florida Standard shows how easy it is for the real people behind digital doppelgangers to remain in the shadows
Posted inFlorida Election Coverage
Florida lawmakers cede redistricting authority to executive power
Florida lawmakers voted largely along party lines to rubber-stamp a new Congressional district map.
Posted inHealth
‘Release the data’: Florida Trib report on maternal health spurs billboard campaign
The campaign was launched by Mayday Health, a reproductive health education nonprofit that uses digital advertising and guerilla marketing campaigns.
Posted inFlorida News Articles & Reporting
As Florida restricted abortion, state’s maternal mortality committee went dark
A secretive panel hadn’t publicly released any annual findings about maternal deaths in years until a Florida Trib reporter asked about the lack of action
Posted inImmigration, State Government
Lawmakers curtail governor’s emergency powers after ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ spending spree
Less than two weeks after the Florida Trib reported that newly released documents showed the DeSantis administration had burned through more than a million dollars a day on the makeshift tents-and-trailers facility, both chambers of the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to add new limits on the fund.