\u00a7800.04(7)(a)<\/a>, Florida Statutes, and State v. Werner, 609 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 1992), a conviction for lewd or lascivious exhibition requires proof that a child actually saw or sensed the act in question,”\u00a0she wrote in her letter Wednesday. “In this case, the child was interviewed by trained forensic specialists and did not recall witnessing the alleged act. Without that element, the statute cannot be satisfied, and, in fact, it would be illegal for my office to proceed with charging the defendant with a crime.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nWorrell then went on to argue in favor of her past decisions in several other cases before calling Uthmeier\u2019s repeated comments on her record as \u201cdefamatory and dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey mislead the public about ongoing prosecutions and compromise the safety of my staff and witnesses,” she wrote. “They are also extremely harmful to my professional reputation and undermine my ability to execute my absolute authority as State Attorney.”<\/p>\n
She ended her letter by calling on Uthmeier to bring his concerns to her directly, and to work together to protect Floridians.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and I may hold different views about justice, but our oaths are the same, to uphold the Constitution and protect the people of Florida,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n
Neither DeSantis nor Uthmeier immediately returned a request for comment on the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Florida lawmakers prepare for the potential end for health care subsidies<\/p>\n
As the federal government shutdown continues, lawmakers in Tallahassee are grappling with some of the potential impacts in Florida.<\/p>\n
One such effect is the potential cost increases for health insurance as a result of the end of federal subsidies created under the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n
Democrats in Washington say they will not approve any funding deal that doesn\u2019t extend the subsidies, while Republicans say an extension should be part of separate negotiations after the government is reopened.<\/p>\n
State lawmakers received a presentation yesterday from Florida\u2019s Department of Financial Services, which indicated potential rate increases of up to 34% for Floridians who keep coverage but lose the subsidies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are we going to do, because this crisis is going to happen, and we\u2019re all going to get blamed? And your office, two and a half weeks, open enrollment begins, and letters haven\u2019t gone out. Nor have you given them any warning, because if they don\u2019t open that letter and just assume they\u2019re getting their coverage, their 51% increase is going to renew without their knowledge, and they\u2019re not going to be able to change that,\u201d Deputy Commissioner of Life and Health Insurance for Florida\u2019s Department of Financial Services Alexis Bakofsky said.<\/p>\n
Chief Actuary for Florida\u2019s Office of Insurance Regulation Kyle Collins explained to lawmakers why insurance companies requested, and got approval, for those rate increases:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s, what we would call market morbidity of the average health of the population. And so what\u2019s changing is with the subsidies expiring, members going from zero-dollar premium to a non-zero-dollar premium, what you typically see is people who need the coverage, they\u2019re going to find that extra 20, 30 bucks. People who don\u2019t need the coverage, they\u2019re going to drop. And so then the average health of the remaining population is significantly worse, needing a much larger rate increase.”<\/p>\n
The subsidies in question are currently set to expire at the end of the calendar year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Attorney Monique Worrell sent a letter to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asking him to stop his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2198,2202,2205,28,30,29,2197,2200,2204,2203,115,139,2206,2199,2201,275,135,2032,835,2196],"class_list":{"0":"post-5858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-app-political-connections","9":"tag-asher-wildman","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-holly-gregory","15":"tag-instagram-bn9","16":"tag-instagram-n13","17":"tag-jason-delgado","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-orlando","20":"tag-political-connections","21":"tag-political-connections-full-episode-ctv","22":"tag-political-connections-in-line-video-player","23":"tag-spectrum-news-staff","24":"tag-tampa","25":"tag-trending-topics","26":"tag-vod","27":"tag-ybeth-bruzual"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SN_BANNER_APP-LIVE-STREAM_GIF_30968_SC_v02D-1.gif\")
<\/a>